Labornet Japan is a network of citizens, unionists, activists, scholars and others from all walks of life to share information especially about rights and struggles in and outside of Japan. Established in 2001, the group now has more than 500 members, and the membership is growing. The English site introduces some reports shared on Labornet Japan website and other sources outside of Japan.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

On March 13, 2017, the Japanese Government, Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) and Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation) agreed to limit monthly overtime work to 100 hours. In response to the agreement, an emergency meeting was held on March 15, organized by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, Diet members and bereaved family members of karoshi (death from overwork) victims, and joined by 200. Teranishi Emiko, the leader of the Families Dealing with Karoshi, read a message from TAKAHASHI Yukimi whose daughter committed suicide after working for excessively long hours, “Human beings are not computers or robots. I strongly oppose 100-hour overtime a month”. A bereaved family from Kyoto said, “My husband was healthy but lost his life at the age of 40 after working overtime for 80 hours a month. 100-hour overtime a month is never acceptable”. KIRIKI Hiroko, from Miyazaki, Kyushu, lost her 23-year old son. He committed suicide as a result of excessive overwork. She strongly appealed, “I am really sad that suicide was the only way for him to escape from work. Is this right? It is a ‘murder’ to force deadly volume of work”. SUZUKI Tsuyoshi, the Secretary General of Japan Community Union Federation, affiliated with Rengo, strongly criticized the confederation that agreed with the government and the management over regulations on the limit of monthly overtime, saying, “I am hated in Rengo, but does it deserve to be a union without supporting karoshi-bereaved families?” Nine opposition Diet members swore that they block the bill to limit monthly overtime work to 100 hours from being passed at the Diet session. (M) Photo flash and video (9 minutes 46 seconds)

“TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), apologize! Give Fukushima back to us!” On March 11, 2017, the sixth anniversary of the disaster of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, 550 people expressed mourning and anger in front of TEPCO headquarters in central Tokyo. Famous writers delivered speeches against nuclear power, followed by various performances in protest against the electric power company. Then, evacuees from Fukushima expressed their hardship that they have endured since that day. KAMEYA Sachiko, from Futaba Town, Fukushima, said, “We want to return home but we cannot”. MATSUMOTO Noriko said, gazing at the TEPCO headquarters, “TEPCO should make sure to provide housing to us. Do not force us evacuees to be exposed to radiation. If a nuclear disaster occurs again, there will be even more internally displaced persons like us”. The organizer of the rally gave a letter to the manager of the Nuclear Power Center of the company. The manager said, “We are sorry for still bothering many people”, followed by an outcry from one of the rally participants, “Think about it seriously! No more nukes!” (M) Photo flash, video (6 minutes), photos (shinya)

At night of March 9, 2017, 600 people filled the space in front of the Office of the Prime Minister in central Tokyo, carrying placards to demand the ultranationalist school scandal be thoroughly investigated. Many Diet members and intellectuals referred to the recitation of the “Imperial Rescript of Education” by ultranationalist kindergarten pupils. KAMIMOTO Mieko, an opposition Democrat of the House of Councilors and a former schoolteacher, stepped into the history of the rescript, saying, “’If our country is in danger, go to war’. This was to mobilize the people for war, and all pupils and junior high school students were asked to repeat this phrase. The rescript was kept at a holy place and protected by a schoolmaster for life. It was abolished after World War II, but Defense Minister INADA Tomomi still says, ‘There are some positive aspects in the rescript’. Her historical perception is simply wrong, but it is terrible that such a dangerous person has become Japan’s Defense Minister. The ultranationalist school scandal is not only related to the unfair obtainment of state-owned land but also in close relation with the educational policies of the Abe administration that has promoted war policy”. Actions against the ultranationalist school scandal will be carried out every Thursday in front of the Diet Members’ Building. (M) Photo flash, video (4 minutes 14 seconds)

On March 5, 2017, about fifty persons joined a lecture by YAMANABE Yukiko (photo) in a suburb of Tokyo. The title was “What did Japan do in China? – Chinese people from the viewpoint of Yamanabe Yukiko”. Yamanabe is a former hospital corpsperson for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. She regularly heard the word “Riben Guizi” (Japanese devils) in the army. A Chinese soldier only answered her, “You will gradually understand it” whenever she asked him about the meaning. The Chinese soldiers had such slogans as “Ready to die in anti-Japan struggle but not to be enslaved by futility” and “Death is not surrender to the enemy”. In 1949, the People Republic of China was founded after the end of the civil war in China. Four years later, Yamanabe returned to Japan with her husband and daughter. In Japan, they lived near the Tachikawa Base of the US Military (now closed), and Yamanabe did not like such a life in Japan. However, she was involved in the Sunagawa Struggle against the base rather than going back to China. And she found some hope in the struggle. (SASAKI Yumi) Video (3 minutes)

There have been discussions on regulating working hours. On February 28, 2017, Yomiuri Shimbun, the biggest circulation newspaper in the world, carried stunning comments of SAKAKIBARA Sadayuki, Chairperson of Keidanren, “Monthly overtime of 100 hours is pretty appropriate” and “An excessively strict limit of overtime possibly weakens international competitiveness of companies”. What is “appropriate” with 100-hour overtime a month? Is it justified to sacrifice life and health of workers in the name of “international competitiveness”? Aequitas, a grassroots movement for the minimum wage of 1,500 Japanese yen per hour, tweeted this Yomiuri article, leading to 616,000 impressions, a total number of engagements of 47,000, and 7,000 retweets in just four days. This strong criticism against the comments of the Keidanren chairperson has led to an emergency protest action in front of the Keidanren building. Your support is very highly appreciated. (Aequitas)

Monday, March 6, 2017

Five members of the Malugo branch of the
National Union of General Workers, Tokyo Tobu have been occupying a model gun
shop in Tokyo since the end of last year to protest closure of the shop. On 28th
February, the union signed an agreement with the company stating that the
company will retract the unfair dismissal, turn over the shop inventory to the
workers as severance payment, and lend the
workers a nearby shop so that they can continue the business. This
is a victory for the workers who didn’t give in and for all Tobu Union members
and supporters. The new shop “Take Five” will open in early March near Ueno
station. (SUDA Mitsuteru)

Two protest actions took place around the
Diet building on Friday February 24th. One was a No-nukes meeting
from 6:30 pm to 8 pm held in three areas around the Diet building. The other
action, from 8 pm to 9:30 pm, sought to
stop the dispatch of the Self Defense Force to South Sudan and demanded the
resignation of the Defense Minister, INADA Tomomi. At the end of the second meeting,
the organizer proposed to continue the action to protest the suspicious Morito
Gakuen land deal in Osaka. The kindergarten made ABE Akie, the Prime
Ministers’s wife, its honorary principle and is planning to open a new primary
school, for which the government sold the land at a surprisingly cheap price.
The Kindergarten has been praised by both Abes for its patriotic education and
for having pupils recite the Imperial Rescript on Education issued in 1890.
(KINOSHITA Masaaki)